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File contributed to the McLean County ILGenWeb Project
Copyright 2008, all rights reserved.
These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format
without the written consent of the author, ilmcleanvcc@gmail.com.
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Source: The Good Old Times in McLean County, Illinois
Dr. E. Duis, The Leader Publishing and Printing House - 1874
Contributed by: Carol Genung
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JAMES ALLIN Biography
James Allin was born January 13th, 1788, in North Carolina. When he was ten years of age his parents moved to
Boone County, Kentucky. Young James bore all the hardships of travel manfully, riding over the mountains on
horseback and sustaining all the perils of the journey. The family, after remaining one year in Kentucky, moved
across the Ohio River into Dearborn County, Indiana. Here young James lived, and in the year 1817 he did as all
active, vigorous young men should do, got married to a kind and affectionate woman. Her name was Catherine Livingston.
He has been blessed with seven children, three of whom are now living. Two years after this important event he moved
to Edwardsville, Madison County, Illinois, where he remained until 1821, when he removed to Vandalia, which was then
the capital of the State. In November, 1829, he came to the present site of Bloomington, and moved his family there in
the following spring. Mr. Allin's removal to Bloomington was not the result of accident but of calculation. He saw that
a line drawn from the rapids of the Illinois River to Cairo would pass through Blooming Grove. It was also on a direct
line from Chicago to Alton and St. Louis. He admired the country for its natural beauty and fertility, and it seemed to
him that as the country grew in population and wealth a town situated in Blooming Grove would not fail to have before
it a brilliant future. In March, 1830, Mr. Allin built the first house in Bloomington. It was a double log house, one
part being used as a dwelling and the other part for a store. In the session of the Legislature of 1830 and '31 Mr. Allin
succeeded in getting a bill passed laying off the county of McLean. When the commissioners came to lay off the new county,
Mr. Allin offered twenty-two and a half acres of land for a county seat. The offer was accepted and the county seat was
named by him Bloomington. The twenty-two and a half acres given by Mr. Allin are bounded by Front and North and East and West
streets. The first court held in Bloomington was at Mr. Allin's dwelling, the log house which stood in the edge of the timber,
nearly opposite the present location of the First Presbyterian church.
Mr. Allin was a man of business. He brought to Bloomington the first lot of goods and drove his business as a merchant, with
great energy. His public spirit and his energy made him very popular, and in 1836 he was elected to the State Senate. The election
was afterwards repeated, confirming Mr. Allin's influence and popular strength. He died on the fifth of May, 1869.
James Allin was a man of medium stature; in build he was slim; his hair was light brown; his eyes were gray and penetrating in
expression, but his eyesight was not good during the latter portion of his life, and he was obliged to wear spectacles. His complexion
was healthy, but this was a deceptive appearance, as he was during his whole life a feeble man, and his health was delicate. He had
extraordinary business capacity, and the energy and determination with which he followed out his plans were wonderful. The man's
strength of will was once shown when his son William Allin was sick and not expected to live. Mr. Allin said to him: "William, I would
not die if I were you, I would not give way." His public spirit, his qualities of heart as well as of head, will make him remembered as
long as the city of Bloomington, which he founded, shall stand.
The following is taken from the Bloomington Pantagraph of an early date, and relate to an old settlers' dinner where James Allin was present:
"Mr. Allin's health is poor, and he has never recovered from a fall on the ice which severely injured him about three years ago. He walks on
crutches, and was assisted up stairs by two men. He was complimented by the speakers as the man whose superior foresight pointed out Bloomington
as the site of a future city, when all around was an uncultivated wilderness. According to what Governor Moore and Colonel Gridley said, Mr. Allin,
in his younger days, was very much such a man as we occasionally hear of now in frontier places.
"He used every honorable endeavor to induce emigrants to locate in this county. If they wished to settle in the new town, Mr. Allin would sell
them lots at a low price, if they had money, and would sell them at a lower figure if they had little money, or would give lots outright if they
had no money, always stipulating that improvements should be made. It was such unremitting care and exertions, which, in the course of a few years,
gave this settlement a start that made it out of the question for any neighboring town to compete with it, and made it eventually a point to be
aimed at by railroads, which have now made Bloomington one of the thriftiest and best business places in the State.
"It must have been a proud day to Mr. Allin to meet so many old friends and neighbors, not one of whom bears the slightest grudge against him,
and to listen to such eloquent and appreciative tributes to his life-long public spirit. With all his opportunities for building up a large
fortune, Mr. Allin's valuable lands slipped from his hold in one way and another, to parties who could not or would not pay much for their lots,
and to parties who afterwards speculated upon the rise of town lots, until when property came to be really valuable he had little left to sell,
He, however, acquired a comfortable competency, so that his old age is pleasantly passing in the midst of a community he took such pride in
drawing together. A more grasping man would have so hesitated to sell property that settlers would have been driven away and a less honorable man,
if he had made more money, would have had fewer friends in his old age. Bloomington owes a debt to Mr. Allin which it can never repay."